Eira and Thangstahh playing "cai mui" @ Melbourne Central's Max Brenner, November issue of LaLa ($15.88) @ Kanga KangaAnother outing which was planned way back from last term's outing. Unfortunately, Heolin couldn't make it (again) due to the fact she was busy with something else. So only Eira, Thangstahh and myself bumming around the city streets.
First thing we normally do is go to our "usual shops" which include: Hobby Japan (which was closed again! - they should seriously consider changing the trading hours sign!!), Ozanimart (where I bumped into my cousin, Procabiak and his uni friend), Kanga Kanga, The Asian entertainment store with the yellow sign etc. (Yes, we are very Asian XD) However this time we went "exploring" around and came across a new arcade with another Asian entertainment store. We browsed for a long time checking out music CDs, dramas and anime, but we didn't buy anything since we all know that everything can be found on the world wide web (if you know where to look, that is) ;)
中国城 China Town Dumpling - ironic thing is that the shop is not located in China Town but rather on Swanston Street Next stop was lunch! We were supposed to go to China Town Dumpling last time, but changed to Dessert House. The dumplings took a VERY LONG time to come, once we ordered. I reckon they were alright in flavour, they still can't beat Springvale's Shanghai Dumpling Restaurant, the Asian cafe in the Target Arcade and the one in the alley ways of China Town (I don't know if they changed flavour).
The reason why I gave minus points to this restaurant was that: a) service was slow and b) the pan fried dumplings weren't even crispy. To me, the most important part of the pan fried dumpling is the base of the dumpling. If it's not crunchy, it's not good. Dumplings Plus @ Swanston Street also lost points here. I'm a very picky eater :)
中国城 - 水饺 China Town Dumpling's dumpling menu (half of it anyway...) 
牛肉饺子 (煎) Lamb dumplings (Fried [more like pan fried...]) 
东北水饺 (煮) Peking pork dumplings (boiled) After lunch we headed to Photo World @ Bourke Street Mall, not to take sticker photos but rather the CLAW MACHINES XD (Thangstahh dai gaw wai sai) Spent a lot of $1 coins on various machines. Thangstahh got 4 plushies and Eira got 3 plushies (in which he gave Sakura to me because I got none). We also got ripped off with this new machine since we didn't know how to control the damn thing.
We explored the city streets of Melbourne straight after, discovering many new arcades and alleys we have not went through previously. It was pretty interesting really. Places I didn't know existed and I spotted a cosy cafe and a Japanese restaurant (run by Japanese people?) in an alley near Flinders. Stopped at a foreign bookstore in which Thangstahh was reading Japanese from a Lonely Planet Guide and where the 3 of us struggled to read from a Cantonese phrase book (the pinyin was so screwed up! Our MSN pinyin are WAY better!) After exploring we made use of Myer's passage way to get back to Melbourne Central, getting blasted by hot air at the entraces.
Here's what we found interesting in Myer ↓ Thee donation box was filled with all sorts of currencies rather than $AUD. Strange...goes to show how GENEROUS Melbournians are.
Donation box @ Myer
Naruto's Sakura plush keyring from Eira (thank you!), candy from The Original Lolly Store @ Melbourne CentralStopped at Melbourne Central's Max Brenner for a refreshment and it seemed the waiter was avoiding us XD The guys played "cai mui" while I looked and read bits of my LaLa. Last stop was a visit to the lolly store and tram-ing it back to my workplace, whilst Eira and Thangstahh went off to play pool?
Overall a fun yet tiring day out (I ought to get new shoes, Chucks aren't made for walking!). The weather was unexpectedly fine so I guess that's good. Only I think I got struck with a heat wave. Back to tee shirts and pajama pants for me.
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